Democrats Can’t Duck The Culture War

Thomas Edsall thinks that Joe Biden and the Democrats can somehow duck the culture war now after intentionally dialing it up a thousand notches over the past four years. The White upper middle class professional wing of the party has grown more repulsive, toxic and intolerable.

New York Times:

“The Biden administration appears to have adopted a two-pronged strategy to reduce the corrosive impact of hot-button social, cultural and racial issues: first by inundating the electorate with a flood of cash via the $1.9 trillion Covid relief act and second by refusing to engage fractious issues in public, calculating that deprived of oxygen, their strength will fade.

The sheer magnitude of the funds released by the American Rescue Plan, the White House is gambling, will shift voters’ attention away from controversies over Dr. Seuss, who can use which bathroom and critical race theory. So far, the strategy is working. …

The focus of the Biden administration on economic issues is, in part, a strategy to apply crosscutting pressures on white working class voters who have moved to the Republican Party.

While culturally conservative, many of these voters remain liberal on economic policy, suggesting that a Democrat who lowers the temperature on cultural issues while stressing an expansion of economic benefits could make inroads with this constituency. Even small inroads would provide huge political dividends. …”

This is a fantasy.

Here is a short list of issues where the blowback is coming and rightly so:

Impeaching Donald Trump – According to Adam Serwer, the Democrats are the party of prosperity, not vengeance now. It wasn’t the Democrats who impeached Donald Trump twice. The first time it was over Ukraine when Robert Mueller found nothing and the Russia conspiracy hoax didn’t work. The second time it was over the Capitol Siege which makes no sense in light of federal conspiracy charges against groups like the Oathkeepers. If memory serves, impeaching Trump the second time even after he was no longer president was a higher priority for Democrats than passing the COVID relief package.

Censorship – After wiping President Donald Trump off the internet and purging hundreds of thousands of his followers in order to rig the internet in favor of progressives and branding the entire populist Right as “far-right extremism” and “domestic extremism,” the Democrats now want to sidestep the issue. What are the long term political and cultural consequences of having a few monopolies suppress such an enormous swath of domestic political opinion? What have they unleashed as a result of their reckless actions? How can you cancel the president of the United States, ostensibly the most powerful man in the country, and delude yourself into believing that “cancel culture” isn’t going to become a huge issue?

Political Correctness – Aside from immigration, resentment over political correctness was probably the single most important reason that Trump was elected president. Back in those days, we used to complain about those silly SJWs on college campuses. In the Obama years, we still had free speech on the internet and could usually assemble in public without being attacked by violent leftwing mobs. Since Trump was elected, the brats have begun to takeover and impose their will on institutions like Silicon Valley and the New York Times and Corporate America. They have embarked on an interesting experiment which is to force their polarizing political and cultural views on all institutions including spaces which had previously not been politicized like consumer brands and professional sports and to shout down, demonize and exile anyone who disagrees. They are not the extremists. It is everyone else in the country.

Wokeness – Political correctness had been a growing problem for twenty years before Joe Biden was elected president. The Great Awokening has generated the more virulent strain of it that we know as wokeness. The Biden administration has embraced wokeness from Day One. In his inaugural address, Neoliberal Joe endorsed the blood libel that all White people are complicit in “systemic racism.” Joe signed executive orders which restored critical race theory in the federal government. Joe signed executive orders which replaced equality with “racial equity.” Unlike Barack Obama, Joe has fully endorsed the idea that we need to start treating racial groups in this country like the woke black Ibram X. Kendi would have us do.

The George Floyd riots were a major turning point. It was the moment when the political, corporate and cultural establishment in this country redefined the term “racism” to mean “systemic racism” and officially broke with colorblindness. Racism now means any difference in group outcomes. Every single White person in this country is now “complicit” in “systemic racism” and benefits from their “white privilege.” COVID is also guilty of systematic racism because blacks and Hispanics are dying from the virus at different rates. Every day seems to bring a new headline about someone whose career has been destroyed by a social media outrage mob of brats for falling afoul of political correctness or wokeness.

Just exactly how many people out there have been censored or canceled due to wokeness? How many people are afraid to express their true opinions and resent having to conform to this ideology? How many people are tired of living their lives walking on eggshells and looking over their shoulders because some f***ing little middle class brat or journo might be offended and traumatized by a contrary opinion? What happens when anger over this issue crystallizes and hits a critical mass?

Wokeness now infests the federal government, media, corporations, universities, public schools, professional sports, the military, etc. The problem is getting worse with each passing year. The idea that you can dodge this issue and that it is not going to disrupt our politics when it is starting to define our politics and is unquestionably the single biggest cultural resentment in the country is hilarious.

Immigration – Immigration and frustration and resentment with the way in which the political class was handling the issue is the single most important reason why the Trump presidency happened. In the last two years of the Trump presidency, immigration deceased in salience as Trump finally got a handle on the issue with the Remain in Mexico policy and due to COVID which changed the subject.

Having learned nothing from the Trump presidency, Joe and the Democrats have decided that multiple amnesties no one wants are what is needed at the moment. When Joe came into office, one of his first acts was to end the Remain in Mexico policy. He also issued an executive order which essentially made good on the activist wish to “Abolish ICE.” Immigration enforcement was supposed to end for 180 days. The Texas AG sued and it was blocked in federal court, but not before the signal was sent to illegal aliens that it was the right time to storm the border in order to get here before the Joe Biden amnesty. Even though passing comprehensive immigration reform was less likely than almost ever before in light of the temperature of the Republican base, Joe went ahead and created a border crisis anyway.

Are Republican and Independent voters going to stop caring about immigration now that Joe Biden is president? How about Democrats? It is “Latinx” Democrats who live along the border whose towns are being flooded by illegal aliens who are pissed off about this. It seems highly unlikely that immigration can be waved away as another polarizing culture war issue.

Gun Control – House Democrats have already wasted no time passing a new gun control bill. The Second Amendment is yet another culture war issue that isn’t going away. Along with immigration, political correctness/wokeness, censorship and abortion, gun control is another reason why the Democratic brand is toxic among White working class voters in rural states.

American Heritage – How many monuments did the mobs of brats topple and destroy in their riots last summer? Was it 200 or 300? The war on Confederate monuments expanded to an all out war on American history. Not even Frederick Douglass was safe. Christopher Columbus and Junípero Serra were cleansed from the public square. In Wisconsin, a monument of the abolitionist Hans Christian Heg was thrown in a lake. The Forward statue was torn down. In Portland, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington monuments were torn down and dragged in the dirt. Abraham Lincoln isn’t good enough anymore for Illinois. The Great Emancipator has already been removed from Boston.

Domestic Extremism – Joe Biden has ordered the U.S. military to stand down to root out “domestic extremists.” What exactly is an “extremist” though? Is an “extremist” anyone who is not a progressive liberal Democrat? Is an “extremist” anyone who supported Donald Trump or who has populist and rightwing views? How many people are we talking about purging from the military on the grounds of political ideology? At a minimum, half of all Republicans would have to be banned, right?

The FBI – During the Trump administration, the Democrats weaponized the FBI and transformed it into the equivalent of the Stasi. The message was sent loud and clear that anarchists are free to engage in violence. They are free to organize nationwide violent riots. In fact, anarchists can attack a federal courthouse in Portland nearly every night for six months and get away with it because the law doesn’t apply to them. The law is only another tool to be weaponized against Trump supporters.

Law and Order/Defund the Police – As we saw last year, the police are the enemy of Democrats and deserve to be defunded. In every case no matter what the circumstances, the assumption should always be that the police are murderers and black criminals are innocent victims of them.

Black Lives Matter and Antifa are also above the law. Both groups have a free hand to engage in serial violence without fear of punishment. Hollywood celebrities will contribute to their bail funds. Democratic foundations will lend them financial support. The Department of Justice and FBI will look the other way when they engage in crime because Precious can’t go to prison for attacking cops.

Crime – As one might expect, Black Lives Matter has unleashed a massive crime wave in urban areas. It happened in St. Louis after Michael Brown. It happened in Baltimore after Freddie Gray. Now, the rest of the country is getting to experience what St. Louis and Baltimore have experienced. At least these big cities which are governed by Democrats. Portland is one of the whitest metros in the country and it is disturbed 24/7 by violent anarchists. Democrats have a well deserved reputation for being soft on crime. There are exceptions like when Ricky Vaughn shared a funny meme on the internet. In cases of “far right domestic extremism,” it should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice and investigated by the FBI.

Abortion – Among other things, this old culture war issue hasn’t gone away. It is just overshadowed by the proliferation of new culture war issues. All the people who are not particularly religious and who don’t really care about abortion have their own cultural grievances now.

Trans – There are a thousand different genders now. New genders are discovered by progressive activists every day including hundreds of new genders in just the last four years. “Trans women” are women. If you use the wrong pronoun or “misgender” or “deadname” someone, you are a bigot or a TERF. No exceptions. There is no room for debating this issue on Amazon or Twitter. The matter has been settled by our progressive overlords in Big Tech and dissent is no longer allowed. Democracy will die in the darkness if anyone dares to utter a different opinion about the issue on the internet. House Democrats have passed the Equality Act. Joe has also fully embraced the “trans women” in women’s sports issue. We are getting rid of “domestic extremists” in the military and replacing them with trans women.

Whiteness – White people are “complicit” in “systemic racism” and benefit from their unearned “white privilege.” This is how race is understood now by progressive activists. This is the brand new standard. We are done with colorblindness and “racism” meaning race hatred. Just being White is now sufficient grounds to being branded a racist by progressives.

We hate the living shit out of White people, especially White men, but also White women who are just as bad. We hate Karen too. Every single day we attack White people on the basis of their race in the corporate media. We advocate discriminating against White people on the basis of their race. No one is supposed to ever get mad about that though. No one can get defensive and resist our explicit anti-White agenda because calling that out is what we call “racism” and “white supremacy” and “far right extremism.” The only White people in America who are angry about that are the “far right.”

It is only the “far right” that is concerned about open borders, cultural degeneration, political correctness or woke supremacy, sweeping demographic change, the growing anti-White atmosphere metastasizing in every institution in the country, the inflation of “racism” and “white supremacy” and “extremism” to encompass ever greater numbers of people, the absurd and ridiculous standards of identity politics where every group in the country EXCEPT Whites is considered legitimate and put up on a pedestal. No one else is mad about that though. Just people on the extreme fringe way out there. It is only the “far right” that is mad about the ADL censoring the internet. There are still a couple good ones like David French, George Will and Charlie Sykes who are respectable enough to come on CNN and MSNBC and write for Time and the Washington Post. It is only around 85% of Republican voters and some large number of Independents who share these concerns who are the bad ones these days. Those people are the “extremists.”

Acknowledging your White privilege is only Level 3. In order to be a true antiracist these days, you have to raise your power level up to White Abolition.

BTW, none of this applies to Jews.

Dismantling Jewishness would be anti-Semitic.

These are only the cultural issues.

By my count, the Biden administration has plunged full steam ahead on open borders, woke and trans issues. House Democrats have passed the George Floyd Act, the Equality Act and a gun control bill. Next up, House Democrats are working on amnesty for illegal aliens to solve unemployment. The Democrats are totally avoiding pushing polarizing culture war issues though. Have they ever pushed so many polarizing issues though so hard from censorship to trans to amnesty in such a short period of time?

Surely, giving these people $1,400 and the child tax credit will change their minds about Joe Biden and the Democrats. They will forget about all of these cultural grievances which have grown more intense. This will not be another case of creating a popular new entitlement or policy (see also student loan debt relief, raising the minimum wage, Medicare, stimulus checks, etc.) that is more popular than the Democrats because of the cultural toxicity of their brand which is covered in layer upon layer of shit.

Donald Trump gave Democratic voters two stimulus checks worth $1,800. The $2,000 was Donald Trump’s idea. If Democratic voters weren’t persuaded by this to change their view of Donald Trump, why would Trump voters be persuaded to change their view of Joe Biden and the Democrats? For all the reasons listed above, Trump voters still won’t trust Democrats to be in charge of the government. Threatening people with a “war on domestic extremism” and labeling them “extremists” and “domestic terrorists” and “insurrectionists” for their political viewpoint isn’t exactly a persuasive argument.

The Democrats are suffering from a delusion. By giving you $1,400 and the child tax credit, progressive activists can suppress your political opinions, run roughshod over you, violate your rights and destroy your life, but you will be fine with that and won’t hold it against them! I don’t think so!

Donald Trump was way too soft on these people. He cut their taxes. He appointed libertarian pro-business judges. He did criminal justice reform. He even let the brats riot for six months. We can’t afford to elect someone as soft as Trump again. Next time, we have to raise our standards.

Note: I support the COVID relief bill. Who doesn’t like getting $1,400 or the child tax credit? None of this addresses the real issues that I have with the Democrats though as an Independent voter.